History Recap / TheSimpsonsS15E9IAnnoyedGruntBot

* SnapBack: Lampshaded. At the end of the subplot, Lisa christened her final cat "Snowball II". When Principal Skinner called her out on this, Lisa says "I guess it is, ''[[DiscontinuityNod Principal Tamzarian]]''."

* ResetButton: Played with. Because the cat that the CrazyCatLady gave her looks like the recently deceased Snowball II (and because she doesn't want to go through the hassle of buying a new bowl), Lisa decides to call her new cat "Snowball II". It's played with because Principal ''Tamzarian'' then points out that she's pressing the Button out of laziness.

** The episode uses more interesting camera angles than usual, such as with [[https://frinkiac.com/video/S15E09/mvNDkT9eG-dKfW4RCv2lwNwAS1Y=.gif Homer sucking beer out of the carpet]].

* AnimationBump: This episode has a handful of scenes that were really fluid. The beginning scene with Milhouse running to the Simpsons' house in particular containing some beautiful lighting and animation.

** Ralph Wiggum's robot uses '''''an actual handgun as a weapon'''''. Homer somehow manages to dodge the gunshots (though a couple graze his arms), and he takes the gun away from Ralph's bot, emptying the magazine on it.

* TheDeterminator: Due to the fact that he is operating Chief Knock-a-Homer, Homer has to ''actually'' fight the robots so that Bart doesn't catch on. In fact, in the very first bought he is in, Homer has to fight through taking ''a buzzsaw to the arm''.

* {{Jerkass}}: Nelson and his gang when they steal Bart's bike's tassels and mock him for not having a ten speed bike.

* ResetButton: Played with. Because the cat that the CrazyCatLady gave her looks like the recently-deceased Snowball II (and because she doesn't wants to go through the hassle of buying a new bowl), Lisa decides to call her new cat "Snowball II". It's played with because Principal ''Tamzarian'' then points out that she's pressing the Button out of laziness.

** The robot that is crushed and turned into a trophy by Frink's robot resembles that of of an [[Film/TheTerminator Endoskeleton]]. Videotapes labeled "[[UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli Killhammed Aleee vs. Circuit Ray Leonard]]" and "Killhammed Aleee vs. [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} Bender]] are also visible when the shot changes to Bart and Homer.

* AnimationBump: This episode has a handful of scenes that were really fluid. The beginning scene with Milhouse running to the Simpsons' house containing some beautiful lighting and animation.

* AnimationBump: This episode has a handful of scenes that were really fluid.

* TakeThat: When Chief Wiggum disguise his police car's sirens with a banner reading PIZZA, he also attaches a Domino's Pizza logo when Lou asks what they do if someone mistakes them for a real pizza business. Sky 1's airing of the episode in the UK removes this scene, because when it was first aired Domino's sponsored the show in the UK, and having a scene which insults the sponsor would have likely caused trouble. Ironically in 2006, the Simpsons did an advertisement for Domino's Pizza (it came out two years after this episode).

* CallBack: The montage of Homer and Bart winning their fights is set to "Watching Scotty Grow". When Homer is losing the final bout, he deliriously sings a few lines of the song.

** Ralph Wiggum's robot uses '''''an actual handgun as a weapon'''''. Homer somehow manages to dodge the gunshots (though a couple graze his arms), and he takes the gun away from Ralph's bot, emptying the clip on it.

* TakeThat: When Chief Wiggum disguise his police car's sirens with a banner reading PIZZA, he also attaches a Domino's Pizza logo to avoid any trouble with bikers. Sky 1's airing of the episode in the UK removes this scene, mainly due to the fact that Domino's sponsored the show for 10 years, and having a scene which insults the sponsor would have likely caused trouble. Ironically in 2006, the Simpsons did an advertisement for Domino's Pizza (it came out two years after this episode).

* {{Jerkass}: Nelson and his gang when they steal Bart's bike's tassels and mock him for not having a ten speed bike.

* PetTheDog: The CrazyCatLady giving a very depressed Lisa one of her beloved cats (well, more like tossing it to her, and who knows what she was thinking when all she says is gibberish).

* StrawLoser: One more point for Gil Gunderson. The man crashes his car because of Homer's antics, the wreck's on fire, '''he's''' on fire, and yet he's still dancing a jig because:

** The robot that is crushed and turned into a trophy by Frink's robot resembles that of of an [[Film/TheTerminator Endoskeleton]]. Videotapes labeled "[[UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli Killhammed Aleee vs. Sugar Ray Leonard]]" and "Killhammed Aleee vs. [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} Bender]] can be seen in the following scene.

* TakeThat: When Chief Wiggum disguises his car as a pizza car, he uses a Domino's Pizza logo to be sure nobody will want any pizzas from him. Sky 1's airing of the episode in the UK removes this scene, mainly due to the fact that Domino's sponsored the show for 10 years, and having a scene which insults the sponsor would have likely caused trouble.

* MiseryPoker: When in bed Marge is worried that she just doesn't know what to do with Lisa being depressed over losing many cats. Homer simply shows her a large metal shrapnel and says he just ''removed it from his leg''. Marge kinda of forget her problem and just helps Homer removing more shards of metal scraps with a magnet.

* TakeThatUs: Most of the cast and crew of the Simpsons considers "The Principal and the Pauper" [[note]] the one where Principal Skinner is revealed to be an impostor named Armin Tamzarian and the ''real'' Skinner is eventually ejected from Springfield while Armin legally changes his name to "Seymour Skinner" [[/note]] to be an OldShame, and Al Jean is no exception. He hated the episode so much, when he returned as executive producer he retconned the episode every chance he got. This episode is a rare exception, but Lisa calling Skinner "Principal Tamzarian" after he calls her out on naming her new cat who looks exactly like her old cat "Snowball II" is a nod to the blatant ResetButton at the end of "Principal".

** Frink's robot goes by the name of Chassis Clay, aka [[UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli Killhammed Aleee]] and looks like [[Film/RoboCop ED-209]].

-->'''Gil:''' Ol' Gil will get the insurance money! I'll be eating ''food'' tonight!

* ThePollyanna: Olg Gill is glad he crashed his car because he'll get a check from insurance.